Yankees will host Oakland in wild card game

BOSTON The New York Yankees clinched home-field advantage for the AL wild-card game on Friday night, hitting four homers to tie the major league single-season record and beat the Boston Red Sox 11-6.

Reigning rookie of the year Aaron Judge hit his first homer since coming off the disabled list Sept. 14, and Gary Sanchez, Aaron Hicks and Luke Voit also homered to match the mark of 264 set by the 1997 Seattle Mariners.

The win in the opener of the three-game series settled the AL’s last remaining post-season question with two games to go. The Yankees will host the Oakland Athletics on Wednesday for the right to play Boston in the divisional round.

The Red Sox, who clinched the best record in baseball with a franchise-record 107 wins, were hoping to make things difficult for their archrivals — and the Athletics, too — by forcing the winner of the wild-card game to have to fly cross-country next week. The ALDS begins in Boston on Friday.

At Chicago, Kyle Hendricks went eight innings in another strong start, Kris Bryant connected for a home run and the Cubs moved closer to the NL Central division title while dealing another hit to St. Louis’ playoff hopes, beating the Cardinals 8-4 on Friday.

The Cubs came into the final weekend of the regular season with a franchise-record fourth straight trip to the post-season assured and their third division title in a row in sight. They remain one game in front of Milwaukee after the Brewers edged Detroit 6-5 on Friday night.

At Denver, the NL West-leading Colorado Rockies locked up a playoff berth for the second straight season, beating the Washington Nationals 5-2 on Friday night for their eighth win in a row.

David Dahl homered for the fifth consecutive game to help Colorado clinch at least a wild card with two games remaining.